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Night Manager: Enter the new world of post-Cold War espionage. Penetrate the secret world of ruthless arms dealers and drug smugglers who have risen to unthinkable power and wealth.
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New spies with new loyalties, old spies with old ones; terror as the new mantra; decent people wanting to do good but caught in the moral maze; all the sound, rational reasons for doing the inhuman thing; the recognition that we cannot safely love or pity and remain good "patriots" -- this is the fabric of John le Carré's fiercely compelling and current novel
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No oomph

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A Murder of Quality, set in the early 1960s, sees George Smiley investigating a murder in a public school. When the wife of one of the masters is found bludgeoned to death, Smiley, out of loyalty to an old friend, agrees to look into the case. But his investigation raises a multitude of questions. Who could have hated Stella Rode enough to kill her? Why was her dog put down shortly before the murder? And what did Mad Janie see on that fatal night?

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I love radio dramatizations

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The perfect combination of author and narrator

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Try another book!

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Michael Isikoff

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CHILLING

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Publisher's Summary

The undisputed master returns with a riveting new book - his first Smiley novel in more than 25 years.

Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley, and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications.

Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carré has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In a story resonating with tension, humor, and moral ambivalence, le Carré and his narrator, Peter Guillam, present the listener with a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new.

Another great LeCarre, it goes without saying, but

Occasionally confusing with frequent time shifts but as always, beautifully crafted, with moments of tension and suitably menacing softly spoken characters. The story as such, as good as any Le Carre. But why did he leave the denouement entirely to our imagination - Le Carre who would without doubt have made it a tour de force ? It seems almost like the writer himself got bored or tired, didn't feel equal to the task of producing one more passage of vintage workmanship. And for me, the Smiley Europe statement rings false, probably because I am disappointed with the European response to Brexit, the &quot;we never really wanted you here in the first place, you have nothing in common with us, and now you've decided to leave we are really going to stick it to you&quot;. I don't think that's the Europe that Smiley had in mind.I have to say that Hollander's reading is outstanding - pacing perfect, he has an ability to bring characters immediately to life with appropriate accents, tones and mannerisms of speach even to the point of producing one character pretending to speak like another.

All for England

&quot;We don't pay a lot, and careers tend to be interrupted. But we do feel it is an important job, as long as one cares about the end, and not too much about the means.&quot; - John le Carré, A Legacy of Spies

Le Carré's fiction career can be roughly be divided into two broad, angry worlds (if we ignore his brief, early attempt at crime fiction): Cold War espionage novels and post-Cold War espionage novels. 'A Legacy of Spies' bridges this gulf with one of the great characters from le Carré's early works (let's call them his Broadway House books) by placing one of the best characters from the Cold War, Peter Guillam, George Smiley's right-hand man, into his post-Cold War period (let's call these books his Vauxhall Trollop books). By doing this, le Carré essentially sets up a novel where the retired &quot;heroes&quot; of the Cold-War &quot;Circus&quot; are judged by the lawyers of Whitehall/Legoland/Vauxhall Trollop.

If you didn't think a fictionalized account of a bureaucratic, HR nightmare could be sexy, well, think again. Le Carré's cold genius is found in his ability to show the moral contradictions involved in espionage work and also place that into context to the modern world. This book allows le Carré to juggle both the moral difficulties of the past (Ends&gt;Means) and contrast that with the current state of Mi6 in the UK (Means&gt;Ends). In his struggle to discover if the means of the past were worth the moral costs, while illuminating if the bureaucratic efficiency of the now is effective or even moral, le Carré discovers one core truth of the Modern World: the lawyers and the bureaucrats have won.

terrible performance

Typical Le Carre story with typical characters which are hard to keep track of. The story is probably better as a book rather than audiobook. The narrator drove me crazy. He started out a sentence at one volume, which steadily got quieter and trailed off at the end. No amount of adjustment to my volume control helped. Very poor performance.

A long slow conclusion to the Smiley series

Tom Hollander is wonderful reading this ending and coda to the story that starts with Le Carre’s start. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, and all the rest. Ghosts haunt, the past is exhumed. We go through it all again and many loose ends are tied off and fused. It makes me want to go back and read or listen to them all again.

Excellent

Yet another excellent novel from Le Carre. The story is about a mission preceeding the book, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. All of Smiley's people are in retirement and the Circus is trying to head-off legal action stemming from the mission, and Alex Leamas' mission in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. (I suggest watching the movie again to reaquaint with the characters and plot.) This new book takes place after the Karla Trilogies, so it should be read in order (last) to understand the subleties that are not explained in-depth or are brushed over. Le Carre presumes the audience has read all the books up to this point. I think the action is fine and suspenseful -- this is typical Le Carre -- people reading files and documents and listening to secret recordings; I see no point in complaining about this because that's how all of his novels are written (no gunfights, no car chases).Retired old Peter Guillam is the star of the novel, and Alex Leamas; we briefly catch up with Smiley towards the end. I loved all of the books in the Karla trilogy, this is a fourth installation which also brings The Spy Who Came in from the Cold into the Karla books. Tom Hollander (starred in the mini-series The Night Manager) is outstanding; his rendition fits in beautifully with the preceeding books in the series; i suspect he listened to Michael Jayston and Le Carre himself narrate to prepare. His voice is low and steady, and it is easy to tell when the action switches from a Guillam memory or Guillam reading a top secret document file. Very well done all around - BC

Reacquainted with old friends

It is fun to meet many of the characters from former LeCarre books. As always he excels at character development. Always an eye for detail - things like how a passing character puts on her reading glasses. The resolution of the plot is less definitive, but in many ways fits with Smilie's character.